The invention relates to a plastics tubular sample and reagent container for analyzers comprising an automatic pipetting means, said container having a peripheral edge for bearing on a plate forming part of the analyzer and serving as carrier of the containers.
Recently, particularly in clinical analysis, frequent use has been made of automatic analyzers, e.g. those operating on the centrifugal principle and making photometric measurements of the sample for analysis. The devices can be used, for example, for determining glucose, urea, uric acid, cholestrol or total protein, albumin, bilirubin or metal ions in the blood, serum, plasma, urine or fluid obtained by puncture, e.g. liquor or similar biological solutions. The amount of material available for investigation is often a few microliters, and the time available for analysis is often limited to a few minutes. In such cases it is advantageous to use automatic analyzers, which often are associated with an automatic pipetting means. The samples for analysis, as well as the reagent liquids and inert solutions, if necessary, are poured into tubular containers before the device is started up. After the containers have been filled they are inserted in apertures in a plate. The apertures are usually formed in a circle in the plate, and the filled containers are simply inserted in the individual apertures. Nearly the entire length of the containers extends through the apertures, but the container has a widened peripheral edge which bears on the plate. After the device has been started up, the pipetting means takes a preprogrammed amount from the sample and reagent containers and supplies it to the actual analyzer.
A device of the aforementioned kind is described, for example, in a pamphlet published in 1978 by Messrs. F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co., of Basle, Switzerland, concerning the commercially available "Cobas-Bio" analyzer.
Great care, of course, must be taken when filling the sample holders with material for investigation and the reagent holders with the required reagents. Since a single plate can hold up to say twenty-five sample or reagent containers and it is not necessary to fill all the containers during every operation of the analyzer, it is desirable to have a simple method of marking those containers which are filled with material for analysis or reagents, or those containers which are not to be included in the analysis in progress. In the known systems, the usual method is to put a spot of paint on the edge or cover of the container.